Red blood stained the cobblestone paving as Bolnar drew his last breaths. Embedded onto his back was a rusty arming sword held in the hands of a ‘man’ who wore rusty armour. Not far from the dying Bolnar were the two corpses of his two hired guards, both of whom were ambushed by other skeletons when they ventured in to investigate Bolnar’s screams.

And in the middle of this gruesome scene, there stood a man with emerald eyes. His hands both casually in his pockets as he gave another order to the skeletal minions ‘loaned’ to him.

“Beat up their corpses and strip them of all their valuables.”

The deed was done, now Walter just needed to cover up his tracks. The best way to do that was to make it seem as if Bolnar was mugged and accidentally murdered rather than assassinated. As the sounds of bones cracking reverberated within the alleyway, another thought came into Walter’s mind.

A few seconds later, he opened his mouth and ordered the skeleton knights to answer his question.

“Were there any witnesses? Shake your head if no and nod your head if yes.”

The four skeleton knights shook their head in response, thus confirming that this ‘liability purge’ was a success. Thanks to his experience in his previous life, he was accustomed to doing this kind of dirty work. The only thing that was different was the way he had to order his skeletal lackies around due to their inherent mental differences to regular humans.

Annoyingly, skeletons had no conscious which meant that they sometimes had trouble ‘understanding.’ However, they made up for that deficiency with their cognitive capabilities. Such made them similar to mindless droids from fictional sci-fi media. They were unquestioningly obedient servants who were extremely capable but also a bit incompetent at times.

As long as he was specific when it came to giving orders, the skeletons never disappointed.

With Bolnar and his guards now stripped of whatever valuables they held and with no point in remaining at the scene, Walter gave his next order.

“That is enough. We are leaving, follow me.”

Bolnar was not the only liability that threatened Walter’s scheme, there was also the guard escort who helped him get to Belmud. They too knew information about Walter which made him feel rather uncomfortable. Although unlike Bolnar, these people held no ill will against Walter and beyond that, he didn’t even know where to find a majority of them.

Walter didn’t even plan to kill Bolnar tonight. It just so happened that the ‘Strutting Stallion’ tavern, the place where Walter was supposed to meet Broker was also the same place where Bolnar was. The latter’s loud drunk rant about a ‘cunt’ who cheated him during a deal reminded Walter that it may not be the best idea to leave certain people alive.

Though, Walter still had to thank Bolnar somewhat. Without him, the thought that there exists liabilities wouldn’t have came across Walter’s mind.

And all liabilities must be purged.

…

A few days later, near a fishing town to the south-west of Belmud, at the fisherman’s lodge next to the river stream that flowed down from the Valhan mountains. The real fishermen had probably already fallen asleep in their beds, content with today’s haul of fish. Now, the lodge was appropriated for other uses. Instead of a fishing ship, an empty river barge was docked on the lodge.

It was the dead of the night. The only sounds one can hear was the continuous hissing of the torch flames and the unceasing trickling of the river stream. There were also the sporadic ambient sounds of animals and insects. Apart from that, there were also the noises made by the men in rusty plate armour who were carrying crates in their arms.

In an orderly fashion, these men loaded the crates onto the ship. Their unfathomable discipline and competence was on full display. There was no need for a supervisor ordering them around nor did they make any mistake.  It was almost as if they shared the same mind and body. To the barge’s crew, it was one of, if not the most uncanny sight they have ever seen.

“Yo Kon… These guys… Are... Are they even human?”

“I… I don’t know. It’s already weird enough that they’re doing all that heavy lifting while wearing plate armour.”

“They won’t even talk with us. Mac tried to talk to one of them and the guy didn’t even react.”

Waiting within the lodge, the barge’s crew continued to whisper amongst themselves as they watched the men in rusty armour work. Even Broker, who had seen these unordinary warriors before was still put in a state of disbelief whenever he saw them in action. To think that Walter had more of these enigmatic warriors at his beck and call.

Just what the hell are they?

“I can see that you’re still not accustomed to seeing my uncompromisingly loyal guards.”

Broker’s chain of thought was interrupted by Walter’s casual remark. With a light albeit forced chuckle, Broker gave his response.

“Uncompromisingly loyal is an understatement… Just… just what are they?”

“If you’re worried that they’re not human, don’t be.”

Walter remained nonchalant and only shrugged as he replied to Broker.

“I can assure you that you’ll find regular human skulls within their helmets. They’re not too different from you and I.”

“‘Not too different’ you say? I’ll take your word for it. But that also begs the question…”

In the end, Broker didn’t pursue the topic further, he was already pushing his luck anyway. Instead, he went on to make a request to Walter.

“Do you think that you can perhaps lend me a few of these fine men?”

“Sorry but no. I am on short supply of them for now.”

Walter bluntly denied Broker’s request on the spot. The emerald-eyed man didn’t even pause to contemplate for a moment. That being the case, Broker would be lying if he said that he was surprised. With a slightly disappointed sigh, he replied.

“Ah well. I understand. It’s not that big of a deal anyway. I have many other connections to get work done.”

For a split-second, Broker saw a glint in Walter’s eyes. As if something suddenly crossed his mind. When he responded, the tone of his voice was ever so slightly more commanding than before.

“Now that you mention it… Broker. Do you have any connections to Belmud’s garrison? There is a particular piece of information which I seek.”

“Of course I do. It’s going to cost you though. Two gold franqs.”

Walter waved his hand dismissively as he replied.

“That doesn’t concern me.”

Broker smiled when he heard Walter’s response. Every small bit of profit made is still profit after all.

“Then it’s settled. What do you want?”

The man with emerald eyes answered Broker’s question bluntly.

“Information regarding the Eikthyrnir’s supply wagon caravans. I want everything including caravan schedules and their respective guard escort.”

...

Elsewhere, within the courtyard of Belmud’s castle gardens. The moon hung high over the sky, casting it’s solemn white light onto everything below it. Including the golden-haired man who sat in front of the fountain statue of his great ancestor. His feet resting on a pillow which laid on the back of one of his skeleton knights.

His eyes were closed and his arms were crossed. From a glance it would seem like he was meditating. The truth was that Thyvin’s mind was ‘elsewhere.’

Through his connection to his undead minions, he ‘supervised’ the creation of the artificial goblin caves. Right now, one of his undead goblin hordes found another cave near a river stream. The only problem lay in the fact that a small pack of a couple dozen large wolf-like beasts have taken up residence within this cave.

The beasts were mostly similar to their original animal counterparts. The only differences being their larger size, their glowing red eyes, and their large thick greyish-black fur. Dire Wolves.

Of course, he already gave the next order to his skeleton goblins.

Kill them all.

Although he couldn’t ‘see’ or ‘feel’ anything that happened on the skeleton goblins’ end, he still had a clear picture of everything that happened there. Much like how they dealt with the two rangers previously, the skeleton goblins dealt with the pack of dire wolves through the exact same method. Overwhelming numbers.

Like a tidal wave, the horde crashed into the dire wolves. With the cramped space of the cavern limiting the wolves’ movement, they could only stand their ground against their unrelenting undead foe. Thyvin could even hear the desperate ‘whimpers’ of the wolves as they put a desperate last struggle against the skeleton goblins.

As one cohesive unit, the wolves protected one another as they fended off the skeleton goblins with their mighty claws. A single cleaving swipe from just one dire wolf was enough to incapacitate several skeleton goblins while a single bite was enough to shatter a skeleton’s skulls. Whenever a wolf was left vulnerable, it was often quickly covered by its kin.

Nevertheless their efforts were all in vain. The horde’s numbers was simply too much. The pack was slowly but surely swallowed by the horde. Every moment or so, a dire wolf would be stranded from the pack where it would be literally torn apart by the swarm of skeleton goblins. Not a single wolf from that pack would live to see the light of the next day.

Eventually, the cave was overtaken by Thyvin’s horde. After the majority of the wolves were slain, the undead horde cleared out the cave of any stragglers. The only ‘stragglers’ they found were five female dire wolves as well as their couple dozen cubs. They met the same fate as the others.

With all resistance now entirely eliminated, Thyvin was free to transform the cave into their second goblin cave. Once the second greenskin fungal pod was fully functional , then the ‘productivity rate’ as Walter liked to call it of ‘Project Greenthumb’ will essentially double.

As Thyvin smiled to himself in a satisfied manner, he heard the flapping of wings from above him. Opening his eyes he discovered the sounds of flapping wings were made by a raven. It appeared malnourished, with a skinny frame. Some of its feathers were coming off, revealing the pale skin below. Its most unique feature however, were its eyes which glowed a dim purple light.

That raven was another one of Thyvin’s undead creations and minions, a ‘zombie raven.’

Since undead creatures still followed the laws of nature, undead birds required more than just their bones to fly. As such, he had to resurrect the raven as a zombie rather than a skeleton. Out of the two, Thyvin preferred skeletons over zombies.The cognitive ability of the latter was leagues behind the former, meaning that zombies were more clumsy than their fleshless cousins.

But zombies still had their uses every now and then.  Much like skeletons, they were absolutely loyal to their master and always attempted to complete the task set before them to the best over their ability. That just meant that they should be tasked with less complicated missions. Missions like the transmission of messages.

And sure enough, there was a rolled up piece of paper tied to the zombie raven’s decaying leg.

In order to avoid drawing his family’s suspicion, Walter and Thyvin agreed to keep physical meetings to a minimum. For now, they mostly communicated via undead carrier ravens during night time. The pitch black feathers and small figure of the zombie ravens helped them blend in with the night sky.

After he untied the message from the raven’s leg, Thyvin ordered it to return to Walter’s side. In accordance to Walter’s arrangement, they must assume that the other person didn’t get the letter if the raven didn’t return to its respective ‘owner.’ While this arrangement had some faults, it was also the best option.

When Thyvin unrolled the message, he found only two sentences.

“I’m going to need to ask another favour from you. There is a particular group of people that I need to have taken care of.”